Private Project

CRUSH

In the Venetian lagoon, to board boats and ferries, one must first take a few steps onto a floating platform called "imbarcadero". In Chioggia, near Venice, among the many docking points, there lives an abandoned one. For far too long, no one has walked upon it. No foot deigns to tread on it, and even more importantly, all the boats ignore it. There was just one boat that, once upon a time, made it wobble. Theirs wasn’t exactly a love story. It was more like a dance, a game of chase, a recognizing and ignoring. It wasn’t even a real infatuation. In the murky sea and the placid lagoon, what this imbarcadero experienced was a simple, overpowering crush.

  • SIMONE MARINO
    Director
  • SIMONE MARINO
    Writer
  • LAGUNA FILM LAB
    Producer
  • HUBRIS PICTURES
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Short
  • Runtime:
    7 minutes 56 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    August 30, 2024
  • Production Budget:
    0 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    Italy
  • Country of Filming:
    Italy
  • Language:
    Italian
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital, super 16 mm
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1:85
  • Film Color:
    Black & White and Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Giornate Degli Autori
    Venezia
    Italy
    September 1, 2024
    Giornate degli autori
Director Biography - SIMONE MARINO

SIMONE MARINO was born in 1996. After graduating in Philosophy at Università di Roma La Sapienza, in 2019 he works as a trainee for Paolo Sorrentino’s "The New Pope". Thanks to his first short movie titled "Un figlio" he was adimetted to directors class of Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (Cinema National School). He shots in 2021 "The hedgehog’s dilemma"; in 2022 "Houseparty" (screened for some weeks at Roma’s Nuovo Cinema Aquila) and "The case is closed, go in peace", commissioned by Cam Sugar Record Company and premiered at Torino Film Festival. In 2023 he shots his graduating short movie, "The oddity in the blue crayfish", under the supervision of Paolo Sorrentino. It was presented at RIFF 2023 and many other festivals. In 2023 he's the of Campari's branding campaign - Red Rail - presented at Venice Film Festival. In 2024 he was admitted to Laguna Film Lab artist residency, created by Andrea Segre: during that time he shots his last short movie, "Crush", presented at Venice Film Festival’s Giornate degli Autori. The short movie is actually being ditributed. In the same hear his first music video is out, "La Nausea", for singer\tiktoker Reju. In 2025 he's trainee assistant to Luca Guadagnino on his new film "Artificial".

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Director Statement

Crush was born during the artistic residency curated by Andrea Segre, Laguna Film Lab, in Chioggia. The theme was the imbarcadero — the pier.
The several of existential and architectural contradictions of Chioggia led me to build a love story that is also an apnea. Discovering an abandoned imbarcadero, I immediately felt that it was longed to be seen and filmed – with its own kind of eroticism. And I did it exactly as I would film a body: its cracks, its flaws, its beauty.
After this epiphany, archivist Alberto Salvagno gave me the photos and videos that appear in the film. Images and footage that I bent, altered, and shaped to serve the narrative. Without the power and eroticism of his gaze, then, mine would have been incomplete. In other words, my gaze was somewhat parasitic. In the end, that's a good thing. To tell the story of a crush, one must be a parasite: ready, imperceptible, to observe. Ready, minuscule, to strike. Ready, insignificant, to surrender.